I'll Remind You
by AirFireWaterEarth
Summary: {One-Shot} It started off as a social experiment; go to school and prove to Tadashi that being a genius didn't make him a social outcast. There, he meets a real social outcast— Vanellope Von Schweetz. But under her sarcasm, TGA, and stutter, she's just as lovable as anyone else. Maybe even more so.


**I'll Remind You**

 **Summary: {One-Shot} It started off as a social experiment; go to school and prove to Tadashi that being a genius didn't make him a social outcast. There, he meets a real social outcast— Vanellope Von Schweetz. But under her sarcasm, TGA, and stutter, she's just as lovable as anyone else. Maybe even more so.**

 **ATTENTION: In this, Vanellope has autism. I do not, however, stress to a point that would be accurate. The disabilities it causes willed be stressed, but not other symptoms.**

 **Who's She?**

It really did start off as an experiment. Although Hiro had been accepted in San Frantokyo Institution of Technology (SFIT), he had yet to register. Tadashi said that it was best if he applied after the year was over; otherwise, the homework would be a nightmare. Even with that "big brain of his". Hiro knew Tadashi wasn't trying to convince Hiro not to go to SFIT— he had spent years trying to convince him to go (ages 14 to now 17 to be exact). When Tadashi finally mentioned that, at age 18, no one would accept him as a genius since he was no longer younger than the average student to graduate, Hiro agreed. Hiro wasn't exactly in any rush, but that meant he had nothing else to do that year, and those had been his plans.

"Unless you wanted to go to school as a normal student. But I guess you can't as your outcast self." Tadashi had said, whilst they talked about Hiro's decision in going in that year.

Hiro had been highly insulted.

"I am not an outcast."

Tadashi had laughed, "Yeah you are! Go ahead. Name your friends." Before Hiro could answer, he had added, "Ones I haven't introduced you to. And they're you age."

Hiro had come up with a blank. It was fine though! He was of high intellect people his age couldn't match up with.

"Exactly!" Tadashi had said, "You're an outcast."

"No, I'm not!" Hiro had insisted.

Tadashi had thought for a moment before he spoke.

"Okay, Genius, prove it. Since you've got nothing legal to do this year, go re-take your last year of school. Should be a piece of cake; you know everything, homework's like a breeze, and SFIT will love you for it."

Like he said, an honest to gosh social experiment. But there he was. In the hallway, going into lunch. He had made some friends; a Scottish chick named Merida (with a sick accent), a troublemaking boy named Jack, and Hiccup, someone that Hiro could honestly say was smart. Each of them, including Merida, had girlfriends, but Hiro hadn't met them yet.

They were nice, but they had their own group that they'd been in since they were in Middle School, and Hiro felt a little like an alien to them. He was in the hallway when a clique, the leader being a platinum blonde with cropped hair and wearing, approached him all pink. The second in commands seemed to be a shared role between a green haired chick with almost orange skin, making her seem like a pumpkin or a cupcake and a blonde haired boy with actual make-up on, making him look like a girl.

He was wary of them to begin with. To be honest, the school he was in wasn't exactly the type of school with Queen Bees, but, if it did, they would definitely be it.

"Uh, hi..." Hiro said, his eyes darting the hallway for his escape.

Taffyta looked at him and didn't bother to smile.

"Hey new kid, name's Taffyta. These are Candlehead, Rancis, Snowanna... (1)"

Taffyta went on (most likely), but Hiro drowned her out until the names became I Don't Care, I Don't Care, I Don't Care... He just smiled and nodded. Taffyta finally finished and went to talk about whom everyone in the school was. The team he'd sort of befriended turned out to be the nice ones (go figure) and that, he needed to hang out with an actual group not a group of lovey-dove-doves.

Well, Hiro couldn't say this was a lovey-dove-dove group, but, if the Nice Ones weren't an "actual group" he hadn't met one yet.

"And then there's Vanellope." another weirdo name, Hiro thought. Taffyta didn't catch onto the thought (because she wasn't a psychic) and went on, "She's social road kill. Befriend her and that's it. It happened to Sherman, Penny, and Jamie. Don't let it happen to you."

Most of what Taffyta said was dramatic, but they way she spoke of Vanellope made her seem actually, physically, by the witch cursed.

"What's so bad about Vanellope?" he asked.

Taffyta gagged.

"Other than everything? She's a re— " Candlehead elbowed Taffyta in the side, "Ow, you're such a baby! Fine, fine. Vanellope's... on the spectrum. She has some sort of amnesia that makes her forget things that happened a couple minutes before. I mean, not all the time, but it's not unusual. The nurse doesn't say the whole thing, just TGA. It was caused by a seizure she had as a baby or something. The doctors cured her seizures, but not the— " Taffyta began laughing, "Oh, the stuttering. It's baaadddd."

Rancis began laughing too.

"Yeah," he said, and then raised the pitch in his voice to presumably try and imitate the infamous Vanellope's, "G-g-g-guys, s-s-st-st-sto-o-o-p-p-p-p i-i-i-i-i-itttttttt."

Taffyta finished up with her laughter, "Takes her, like, an hour to finish a sentence."

They way they were talking about this girl made Hiro uncomfortable, so he excused himself and ran back to the "Nice Ones". At least they were actually nice.

~o~o~o~o~

Hiro did actually get to meet Vanellope in the most unlikeliest of places; AP Math. Hiro took really easy classes, but he was afraid he's commit suicide if he didn't do something a little harder in math. It wasn't like he was introduced to her or anything, so the actual introduction took place outside the classroom.

Since it had been the last class of the day, everyone was trying to get out. Vanellope had been the last one out and her speed said that was regretting it. At first, since his back was to her, he had thought he was being attacked. But Vanellope's mumbled "sorry"s said otherwise. There wasn't a whole lot of interaction, but Hiro caught her name on one of her notebooks.

Hiro hadn't remembered her name to the T, so it took him a while before he was able to realize who she was. Hiro wasn't really the type of person who'd just walk up to someone and ask them all kinds of personal things, but he... well, he had questions.

Hiro caught up to Vanellope in the parking lot, where she stood, waiting. Hiro had his own car, so he didn't need a ride, but he decided to talk to her anyways.

"Um, hey," Hiro said awkwardly, putting his hands in his pockets.

Vanellope gave him a side-glance and said shortly, "Hi."

Hiro was silent for a moment.

"So you're Vanellope?"

Another glance and a short response. "Yes."

"Uh, so you're in my math class. How's that going for you?" Hiro squeezed his eyes shut and mentally slapped himself. Nice, Genius. Maybe he was the social outcast Tadashi made him out to be.

Vanellope shrugged.

"Fine. Numbers, equations, no bullies. Oh wait, there's you."

It was the first full sentences (or words that eventually made up to sentences) that she'd said yet, but Hiro didn't really hear a stutter. It was also a sentence that screamed, stop offending me a-hole.

Hiro sighed, "That really wasn't what I meant. I was just... curious."

Vanellope actually turned her body all the way to look at him. Well, not look at him, as he now realized, but at his shirt.

"Strangest way I've ever seen, that present itself." Vanellope scowled, "Let's get this over with before my brother comes; what do you want to know?"

He could write a list.

But "Uh..." was the only thing coming out of his mouth.

Vanellope rolled her eyes, "Fine. Here's some: Yes, I'm autistic. No, I'm not a retard. Yes, I have transient global amnesia. No, I won't forget who you are by tomorrow. Yes, I have a stutter. No, it only occurs when I'm distressed. That enough for you?"

Yes. No. Hiro wasn't really sure. They answered all of his questions but, for some reason, he knew that, by tomorrow, he'd have new ones.

"Yeah, what about— "

"Math? Part of the autistic thing. Bad at people, good at math."

The amount she spoke was a little out of the ordinary for someone with autism, but she was breathy with how she spoke, like every word took a lot of energy. Plus, the stutter itself could have been what had made Vanellope autistic. Not to mention she wouldn't look him in the eyes.

Vanellope was very obviously done, so Hiro good-bye and left. Taffy-something had been right about one thing; she was weird. And on the spectrum. But she wasn't nearly as bad as she had made Vanellope out to be.

 **Strange Sight**

After the first day, Tadashi had convinced Hiro to make a log. Hiro had told Tadashi nearly everything, expect for anything that had to do with Vanellope. It wasn't a good idea to tell Tadashi about his social belly flop.

The second day ran a little longer due to the log Hiro had to keep, but it was basically the same as his first day; learning stuff he already knew, and talking with the Nice Ones (he found they actually liked to be called the Big Six, much to the protest of their girlfriends, trying to say that Anna and Kristoff were in it as much as they were. It became an agreement, although Elsa, being Jack's girlfriend and Anna's sister, was very adamant about it even after the dispute was settled.)

Hiro ate his awful school-food spaghetti while they talked. When he stopped to spin the fork around in the cardboard noodles, he asked about Vanellope.

Merida was the first to say anything.

"Cheeky! Ah like a good fighta."

Jack nodded.

"Jamie's (2) pretty good friends with her. You've probably heard about her from Sugar Rush. Don't mind them; they're just angry Vanellope can beat them at every race there is."

Hiro took a glance at her from the table. Two brunettes, a red head, surrounded her and a blonde (in order, a male, a female, a male, and a female) Yeah, he could see her as a runner.

"Is she on the track team, or is it just that she goes for fun?" Hiro asked.

Jack shook his head.

"No, not run-racing. Like, race car racing. She's not actually allowed to drive but the owner of the place, Felix, has a soft spot for her, so he let's her in. The other team, which was probably how you heard of Vanellope, call themselves the Kings and Queens of Candy, and try to get the city councilmen to kick her out, but it never works. Don't know how, but it doesn't."

Hiro recollected what he'd learned (there was a lot. Jamie must have been pretty good friends with Vanellope).

"So, Vanellope illegally race car drives and the annoying people group, that apparently call themselves the King and Queens of Candy, hate her because of it."

Elsa covered her mouth to keep herself from spurting out the milk she was drinking.

"Mmm, yep," Elsa said after she swallowed.

Hiro set down his fork and leaned back.

"What's the place called?"

Hiccup spoke up that time.

"Sugar Rush. I work there."

Sugar Rush. Nice. Weird, but nice.

~o~o~o~o~

In math, Hiro had tried not to let on to the fact that he was going to bombard her after school. It hadn't been too hard; Vanellope had made it so a good amount of people separated them. At Sugar Rush, Hiro waited for Vanellope to get there. He understood that she most likely had to sneak out, due to the fact that she was doing something illegal. Hiro was able to talk to Hiccup about mechanics and what not to keep him from getting board. Once Vanellope got there, he excused himself to the restroom until he heard the "Ready" of the announcer.

The overall look of place was actually quite small. The cars were more go-cart-like than actual cars (but more like cars than any go-cart he'd ever seen). The track was like the standardized racetrack, an oval, albeit a little smaller. Hiro watched from the windows above as the racers were off. Vanellope's cart was hard to miss; it was painted like she's painted it when she was 10 (which, according to Hiccup, was accurate). Like Jack had said, Vanellope beat the team each round, although Taffyta was usually riding her bumper (although he remembered Taffyta better as No. 23).

When the races were over, Vanellope didn't look ready to gloat. She was off like a rabbit with a fox on its tail. When Vanellope was about to exit the place, Hiro grabbed her wrist. Vanellope spun around.

"W-w-w-what d-do you waaant?" Vanellope asked. It would have been said sharply, but the stutter blunted it out.

"Nice racing." Hiro said.

Vanellope grabbed back her wrist, mumbled a thank you, and continued to walk. Hiro, however, continued to walk with her.

"So, I learned a lot about you yesterday, but you didn't learn anything about me."

Vanellope shook her head,

"I-I d-don't caaare."

Hiro nodded.

"You probably don't." Promptly ignoring what he had said himself, he went on, "I graduated high school when I was 13. I was accepted to SFIT last week, but I made a bet with my brother that I could make friends outside of the ones he's introduced to me, so here I am now."

Hiro stood in front of Vanellope and held out his hand.

"I'm Hiro."

Vanellope looked at Hiro incredulously.

"I don't know why you're doing this, but leave me alone."

Hiro smiled to himself in his head. She wasn't stuttering.

"My brother; remember."

Before Vanellope could say anything else, the Kings and Queens of Candy, walked past.

"Better shake his hand before you forget, Vanellope." Sneered Taffyta.

Hiro looked at No. 23 for a moment.

"You seem to have a condition too. I believe it's called... narcissism." Baymax would be very proud of him.

Taffyta looked dumbfounded for a moment before growling and stalking off, the group following before. However, it wasn't before she whispered in his ear.

"Have fun being social road kill."

After they left, Hiro used his shoulder to wipe off the ear she'd whispered in. Vanellope gave one last look behind them before she said anything.

"P-put back down you're hand. I'm not shaking it."

Hiro sighed and set his hand down.

Vanellope continued.

"I don't really want to be friends with you and I have no idea why you'd want to be friends with me."

It sounded a little like she was going to say something else, but she just stopped there.

Hiro continued.

"Well, the people— "

"What are you doing here?" Vanellope asked. "What am I..." she squeezed her eyes shut, "and it happened again."

Hiro was confused until he remembered she was probably having a fit or whatever these moments were called.

Hiro tried to help "Do you want to know what happened?"

"... Yes"

He shifted, "Okay, what do you remember?"

Vanellope squeezed her eyes shut. "The second round of racing," she said.

"Do you want me to do something?" Hiro asked. He felt kind of like he was talking to his great grandmother or something. She just completely forgot everything in the last twenty minutes.

"Just tell me already!"

"Right. Um, so you won and you walked out here. I told you that, when I was 13 I graduated high school, but I'm going back for a social experiment. And you still don't want to be my friend so... here we are."

Vanellope looked at him for a moment.

"You're forgetting the Taffyta part."

"Yeah, that happ— Wait!" Hiro widened his eyes at a smirking Vanellope.

"I just wanted to see what would happen if I ever did have a moment. You passed the test, Hiro. Nice to meet you."

She shook his no longer outreached hand and continued to walk off.

Sneaky, raven-haired, 5'3" (comment below) chick...

 **Not Bad**

Even though the Vanellope event happened outside of school, Hiro still put it in his log. He knew his brother was going to read it and he wanted him to see his victory.

Vanellope really wasn't a mistake when it came to befriending her. Her own friends were pretty great; one of the boys, Sherman, had a father that was an absolute genius. As in, Hiro had books about him. There was Penny, Sherman's girlfriend that, although had a very A Clique vibe to her, was a total history geek and straight-A student. Jamie and his girlfriend (also named Penny) were all about myths (and science fiction) and their origin and whether or not they were real or possible. In other words, Vanellope had a pretty awesome group of friends. A little child-ish for the age they were, but they didn't have any shades of stupid in their brains, so they passed all of Hiro's inspections. Not to mention, Hiro was Hiro.

Being the people they were, Vanellope's friends didn't seem like the ones that would befriend her despite the constant bullying they got from the Kings and Queens of Candy. But, overtime, Hiro got it. Most of the jabs Taffyta took were at Vanellope. With her stutter, it was hard for her to fight back, so it was cue the friends. You become really... over protective.

Vanellope did have a few forgetful moments, like, when walking to class, she'd just stop and hold her head for a moment until Hiro or anyone else in the group told her which period they were walking to. Vanellope would then chew on her hoodie strand and continue walking. But note, those were few. It wasn't like every two seconds her brain went on rewind. It maybe happened once a week at most.

Vanellope wasn't so bad herself. She liked it when Hiro came to her race track meets because none of her friends understood way se would do anything illegal for the thrill of it, so she would always have to fend for herself against the Losers of Candy (Vanellope made it up, not him). Hiro was, of course, one to know. The first few weeks passed by smoothly. Nothing big or bad (or great) happened, so Hiro's log for each day was virtually the same.

~o~o~o~o~o~

Hiro was going to die.

Why had he done this again? Right. Because Vanellope was explaining to him she was never allowed to drive a car because everyone was worried that she would forget what was going on and die in a car crash. Learning to trust Vanellope, he let her drive his car. And there would be a car crash, all right. But not because Vanellope would forget what she was doing.

So Hiro had taken her to a fairly cleared out region near SFIT (the place his brother tried to teach him how to use the moped) and let her loose there. After Hiro taught her how to use a stick shift (he liked old-fashioned cars), how to steer, which pedals were gas and break, (she had already been introduced to them, apparently) she was off. It had looked like everything was going okay. Vanellope already knew how to drive, she just needed to figure out the mechanics of a larger, more complicated car. Then she sped up. And up. And up. And up...

And now Hiro was here, fearing for his life.

"Slow down!" Hiro yelped, grabbing onto the armrest for dear life.

"Relax you big baby! This is fun!" Vanellope yelled back.

"This isn't fun; it's fearing for your life!" Hiro said.

Vanellope laughed before slamming on the breaks, making Hiro scream loudly (and a little too... high pitched). The car stopped without hitting anything, though.

"See? You're fine."

Hiro just sat there, his eyes squeezed shut.

"Roll down the window."

"It is rolled down."

"Good, I'm going to go puke now."

~o~o~o~o~

When Vanellope told the story to her friends, they all laughed and revealed that the event was the main reason they never let Vanellope drive their cars. That and that it was illegal, but Jamie had given it an attempt one time, with the rest of the gang in the back.

"Never going to do that again. There was a pretty high up sidewalk there and she used it as a ramp. A ramp!"

Hiro was red with laughter. Vanellope really just needed to stick with racing in that indoor area.

"Oh," Penny (Jamie's girlfriend, or as they like to call her Bolt since she was obsessed with her dog) added, "And don't tell her family you let her drive you're car. Ralph will kill you."

"Bolt!" Vanellope said, "Shhh! He'll hear you!"

Everyone but a confused Hiro laughed.

Sherman decided to explain.

"After the driving incident, everyone swears that they never told Ralph, Nell's brother, but he found out anyway."

Vanellope picked at her food.

"It was probably one of the Losers of Candy, but still: ears everywhere."

Hiro sighed.

"Better than a tracking device. Tadashi has one in everything I have," Hiro frowned, "He's gotten better at hiding it too."

Vanellope shrugged.

"I've worn one of those since I was five."

Hiro took a good look at Vanellope. She could have been telling the truth, but she could have also been joking. It was hard to tell with her. Vanellope caught the glance and held up her wrist, which revealed a bracelet that read Transient global amnesia; autism; phone no. 310-223-742 (3).

"There's a tracking chip in here, in case I get so hopelessly lost and can't get back home."

Hiro leaned over and read the number.

"Is that your number?" Hiro asked.

"Yes," Vanellope said sarcastically, "I have people call my cell in case I'm lost."

Hiro rolled his eyes, "Then give me you're real number then."

In a strange moment, Vanellope looked at Hiro, but didn't say anything. She just grabbed a pencil and paper out of her bag and wrote down her number. After that, she didn't talk for a good 15 minutes.

Strange mint green hoodie and jean skirt chick...

 **Jobs Are Bad Ideas**

"No."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"YES!"

"Hiro, I'm not doing it!" Vanellope said, crossing her arms.

"Listen, you need a job, right? Your bother's been pushing you to get one. You yourself said you wanted a job, but no one would hire you because they were worried you'd blank out on the job."

"Yeah, but Wal-Mart? I know it seems strange to you, Hiro, but I have some dignity left in me!"

Hiro sighed and sat down on her couch. It was Friday afterschool, and all of the others were at work. That had brought up the topic of why neither of them had jobs. Hiro technically did have one, it just wasn't legal. And Vanellope didn't have one out of discrimination.

This wasn't Hiro's first time at her house. He'd known her for over four months; he would hope not.

Sometimes Vanellope's brother wasn't able to pick her up, so the group would just all go over to her house. Now that Hiro was in the group, Vanellope usually went with him so that she could at least have shot gun (all of the others had girlfriends that sat in the front seat). Since no one was home, they would just stick around until Vanellope's brother was home (Ralph was fine with it. It comforted him to know people were with his sister at all times). Hiro hadn't really met Ralph yet, but, apparently, he wasn't really her brother. They were foster siblings until Ralph was 18 (and Vanellope was 9) when he promptly adopted her. And those were the reasons why Hiro was trying to convince Vanellope to look a little harder for a job.

Just not at Wal-Mart, apparently.

"Then where else?" Hiro asked.

Vanellope sat down next to him and turned on the TV, shrugging while she was at it.

"I don't know! Didn't I just tell you that?"

Hiro continued to think as Vanellope switched through channels. It wasn't like Hiro had that big of an influence on any place. Except...

"Hey, Nell! I think I got it?"

"Ooo, is it K-Mart?" Vanellope asked, rolling her eyes.

"Nope," Hiro said, "Even better. My aunt's café. I can convince her to let you work there and I'm sure she'll love you."

"And the doctors were sure my stutter would go away in time. That obviously didn't happen."

Hiro looked over at her.

"Really?"

"Yeah! What doctor says, 'Sorry, this child will forever have a stutter.'?" Vanellope said, deepening her voice to imitate the doctor.

"Well, it did get better, right?"

"Yeah, but still, it's not going away any time soon."

Hiro sighed and shook his head.

"Okay, but not the point. I swear, 100% that my aunt will hire you."

"Yeah, but will she fire me too?" Vanellope asked.

"Well, if you deserve it yeah," before Vanellope could say more, he added, "But she's good at deciding. Not to mention, she raised me. She knows how to handle strange people."

Vanellope frowned at Hiro.

"I feel like you tried to offend me and then ended up slapping yourself while you were at it."

Vanellope grabbed a pillow and put it under her chin without saying anything else.

"Is that a no?"

"Yes."

"So it's a yes."

"No!"

"So that's a no."

"Yes!"

Hiro heard Ralph in the driveway and smiled, darting off the couch and speaking as quickly as possible.

"So it's a yes! See you tomorrow at 12!"

"NO!"

But Hiro was outside by then, laughing. Ralph had closed the garage door, but he could almost hear Vanellope cursing him.

 **Jobs Are Bad Ideas; When You Have a Stutter**

"I hate you, Hamada. I hate you, I hate you, I-I h-hate you."

"Relax, Nell, I've already talked to my aunt. She'll just introduce herself and get you situated."

Vanellope rolled her eyes. She was silent the rest of the car ride. Hiro noticed something was off when her fingers slipped while opening the car door, but he really understood when she froze while going to open the glass café door.

"I-I-I-I c-c-c-caaaaan-n-n' t-t-t-t-t d-d-d... I-I-I-I-I c-c-caaa..."

Vanellope squeezed her eyes shut. She looked horrified and embarrassed. Before anyone could see what was going on, Hiro gently grabbed her wrist and brought her over to the side of the building.

"Slow down. You've got this. Breathe. It's just my aunt. That's all it is."

Hiro was starting to doubt himself. He had wanted her to do this, but maybe he should have introduced her to his aunt as a person first, not as a boss.

"N-n-n-n-n-n-n. N-n-n-n-n. N-n-n— " Vanellope cut herself off with a scream. Hiro would see tears in her eyes. She was really frustrated. Hiro didn't know what to do. He'd said everything the rest of her friends had done whenever she stuttered. He took her away from public view. He told her to slow down. But she was still panicking.

"I-I-I-I-I-I..."

Her stutters became muffled when he pulled her into a bear hug. A confused Vanellope tried talking into his chest.

"W-w-w-"

"I'm squeezing you until you calm down."

After a couple moments of shaking breathing Vanellope said something distinguishable, so Hiro let her go.

"What?" he asked.

Vanellope wiped her tongue on her jacket (it probably didn't do much good) and repeated herself.

"That is the weirdest way anyone has ever tried to help me calm down."

Hiro shrugged.

"It worked right?"

Vanellope sighed and nodded.

"You know," Hiro said, "we could just abort mission. I didn't realize you would get so worked up."

"N-n-n," Vanellope squeezed her eyes shut and chewed on her cheek for a good half minute before talking again. "No. I'm fine."

Hiro sighed and ran his hand through his hair. What to do and how to do it...

"Alright," Hiro said slowly, "this is how this is going to happen. You can't just not be nervous. My aunt knows you have a stutter so she'll try and put you in places where you don't have to talk as much. I'll also try and talk for you. Sound good?"

The look in Vanellope's eyes said no, but her sigh meant a yes.

Hiro lead her (practically pushed her) around and back to the entrance to the café. As they walked in, Aunt Cass almost immediately hovered over them.

"Hi! I'm Cass, and you must be Vanellope."

Vanellope smiled and nodded. Aunt Cass began pulling Vanellope towards the storage room and Hiro followed close behind. As Aunt Cass went over procedures, what to do, and how to do it. Hiro felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to face Tadashi. There was concern written on his face.

"Is she going to be okay?" Tadashi asked in a hushed voice.

"Yeah, she's fine. Why?" Hiro asked.

They stopped walking and Tadashi looked a little anxious.

"You said she wasn't bad. I saw you trying to calm her down in the back. She's bad."

Hiro sighed, "It's not like that; she's just nervous! That's when her stutter gets bad. That's it! Trust me, she's almost normal."

Tadashi put his hands up.

"No need to get defensive. I'm just worried."

Hiro gave Tadashi a look.

"I'm not defensive. And you don't need to be worried. I'll help her out."

Vanellope ran down and grabbed Hiro's shoulder, scaring him. Vanellope jerked her head to Aunt Cass who was asking questions. Vanellope rolled her hand and leaned forward as if to say "Well answer her!"

"Uh, what was the question?" Hiro asked his aunt.

"Oh, I was just asking if she had a guardian's signature saying she can work."

Hiro looked at Vanellope.

"You don't need me for that."

Vanellope scowled and rolled her eyes. She stuck her hand in Hiro's jacket pocket and pulled out the paper. Hiro cringed.

"Right, sorry."

Vanellope hit him with the back of her hand and handed Aunt Cass the paper.

"Okay, great! Now you can get started." Aunt Cass looked up, "Hiro, why don't you help Vanellope sort out the condiments."

 **Jobs Are Bad Ideas; When You Can't Remember Anything/ Thank You**

Over the next couple of days, Vanellope was able to have full conversations with Hiro's aunt and brother. After a couple weeks, Vanellope was able to work the register. She wasn't a slacker. If there was one thing Vanellope would never be, it would be that. It was winter break, so Vanellope was starting to work more than usual. And younger customers were starting to add to the older ones, creating a bit of traffic in the system. From what Hiro could see, Vanellope was fine working under a bit of pressure. It wasn't until she was into the middle of the morning did things start getting bad. Hiro overheard a customer talking to Vanellope.

"What do you mean 'what can I get you?' I just ordered!"

Hiro peaked around from in the baking room to see a confused and grumpy customer with a flustered Vanellope.

"W-w-w-w— "

Hiro didn't even remember walking over there.

"So you got the," Hiro took a look at the information in the register, "Ham and cheese croissant?"

The large (overly so) woman that had been talking to Vanellope nodded.

"With a coke."

Hiro nodded and clicked a button over Vanellope's shoulder.

"That'll be $14.95," Hiro said sharply.

The obtuse woman handed over the change, but not before mumbling:

"Are you sure I'm getting it?"

Hiro ignored the comment made change for the twenty. He would have gotten away with short changing the woman if Vanellope hadn't seen the flaw and added the dollar.

After the woman left and the next customer came up, Hiro looked at Vanellope.

"Do you know how to make cupcakes?"

"Y-yeah. Of course."

"Okay, switch with me."

Vanellope nodded and gave a small salute, trying to put fun to Hiro's uptight behavior.

"Sorry." Vanellope said, trying to keep her face to the ground and leaving to go make cupcakes.

While Hiro was getting orders from customers that became less and less confused as it went further in the line., he thought about Vanellope's apology. He hadn't been rude to Vanellope had he? It was just that the woman had made him... upset. When the flow of people slowed down and there were enough cupcakes to tide them over tomorrow, Hiro called Vanellope back to the register.

"You think you can handle the customers again?"

Vanellope nodded.

"Yeah," she laughed nervously and added, "It would be better than giving them all food poisoning."

Hiro smiled and nodded.

"You didn't actually poise— "

"No!" Vanellope laughed.

Hiro continued to resume his duty in the kitchen when Vanellope stopped him.

"Hey, Hiro... I've probably only said this, like, 3 times in my life. But; thanks."

There was an uncomfortable silence before Hiro decided to say something more light-hearted.

"3 times? No wonder no one likes you, Nell."

Hiro dashed off before Vanellope could throw something at him.

"4!" Vanellope yelled.

 **The Glitch Tree**

"Hot, hot, hot in the summer and cold, cold, coooollllldddd in the winter," Hiro said, "San Frantokyo never gives us a break."

Penny cringed. She was a fan of dresses, and was never seen without one. Never. So while everyone was under jackets and jackets with thick jeans, Penny had a pea coat and tights.

"You're one to talk," she remarked on how Hiro was layers over layers of jackets.

Vanellope rolled her eyes, "Well it's your fault."

"I'll be sure to tell you about that in the summer," Penny snapped back, referring to Vanellope's constant habit of wearing mint green hoodies.

Bolt hymned

"Nope, not true. There's the purple t-shirt."

Penny crinkled her nose.

"Don't remind me."

Girls and fashion, Hiro thought. It was one of many things he was thinking, actually. Another being where were they going?

Everyone just said it was the "initiation tree". Whatever that was. Why it had to be in winter Hiro didn't know. Nor did he know where it was or how much longer it would take to get there, or what it looked like, why he had to be there at all, basically everything except for the fact that it was a tree. For initiation.

Finally, Hiro got an answer to everything except for why; they'd arrived.

Vanellope was the first to start going up the tree.

"Wait, we're going to climb it?"

"Yup!" Sherman said as he followed up the tree.

One by one everyone climbed up the tree. Finally, Hiro had no choice, so he climbed up too.

"You guys know we're 18 right?" Hiro called up.

He jumped back and nearly fell out of the tree when Vanellope swung upside down on a branch.

"Yup."

With that, Vanellope joined Penny, Bolt, Jamie, and Sherman.

Hiro was beginning to feel alone, so he continued to climb, faster. It took him a little bit of time before he caught up to the group.

"Almost there!" Jamie said, swinging up another branch.

Up and up and up, Hiro was beginning to get dizzy. Almost there? Yeah right. At one point, though, they did stop. It was a branch that was like every other branch on the tree. It was making Hiro a little mad.

"This is it? This is what we've been climbing for?"

Vanellope hummed, "Mmm, hmm."

Hiro groaned and put his head in his hands. Yay.

"Okay, what are we here for?"

Bolt smiled.

"To make me not the last member of the Glitches."

"The what?" It sounded kind of like a Mean Girls cult.

"The Glitches," Vanellope explained, "Glitch; it's something that shouldn't exist, a mistake. Like me. And I can't do anything about it, so I just gotta live with it."

She wasn't stuttering, which meant she was actually cool with considering herself a mistake. Hiro wasn't exactly cool with her being cool with it.

"That's— "

Vanellope cut him off.

"It was what the Losers of Candy used to call me. So I decided to make it a thing. And sooo, we're all Glitches."

Vanellope smiled a put out her hand.

"Are you a Glitch or not?"

"I thought you didn't shake hands, Schweetz." Hiro said with a smirk.

Vanellope rolled her eyes.

"My hands getting tired here: yay or nay?"

Hiro shook her hand.

"Yaaaaayyyy!" Hiro said in a squeaky, high-pitched voice to sound like a child.

"Naaaaaayyyy!" Sherman said, whinnying.

Penny hit Sherman.

"What? I thought we were imitating things?" Sherman said playfully.

Penny shook her head.

"Dork." She punctuated the sentence with a kiss on the cheek.

Hiro suddenly felt like he was invading privacy or something. He shifted and looked around for something else to look at. He found himself looking at Vanellope, who looked equally uncomfortable. She caught his gaze and cleared her throat.

"Y-y-y-ou g-got it easy, actually. You didn't h-have to wait very long."

Vanellope suddenly looked very innocent with her stutter. She was twirling her hair and chewing her lip after every stuttered word.

"Why? Is there a certain day?"

Vanellope shrugged, "Y-yeah."

Bolt suddenly grabbed Jamie's hand.

"Now's for the best part!"

Vanellope's eyes lit up and she grabbed the watch on Bolt's wrist.

"6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Jamie narrated.

While the countdown was going on, the light shining into the tree was dimming, getting lower and lower until Bolt's watch and Sherman's phone were the only lights. Well, there was one other source, but Hiro couldn't put his finger on it.

"N-n-n-now!" Vanellope squealed, barely bothered by the stutter her excitement caused. Vanellope grabbed Hiro's wrist, and sent their heads shooting outside the pine needles. What Hiro saw next was breath taking.

They were in San Frantokyo's few wildlife preservations. But the tree was high enough so that they could see all of San Frantokyo. All of the balloons that generated the cities electricity were lit up, and the moon was a deep, red color. It was like a show of lights, city light clashing with nature, almost like it was pained.

"Woah." Hiro said, staring at the scenery open-mouthed.

Vanellope grinned.

"Yeah. Usually, we find one event, lunar eclipse, harvest moon, Chinese New Year, anything bright, and use it as out ceremony. This year we got really lucky."

"Yeah..." Hiro continued to stare out at the scenery. It wasn't long, though, before he noticed that it was only them still looking at the lights. "Uh, where did everyone else go?"

Vanellope looked around and then put up a finger before popping below the tree line. She returned with her nose scrunched up.

"I think I'm gonna vurp." (Yes, a vomit and a burp. Vanellope was just interesting like that).

"What?" Hiro asked. He began lowering himself when Vanellope caught his arm.

"I... wouldn't do that if I were you. They're... making out."

Hiro's eyes widened and her returned above the tree line.

"Ohhhh..."

Vanellope rolled her eyes.

"I hope I wouldn't be like that. Or won't be like that, next life time." She said.

" 'wouldn't' and 'won't'? Are you already vouching for you love-life in the next lifetime?" Hiro asked. They were strange things to say, especially at 18.

"Or whenever I don't have TGA. Or a stutter." Vanellope said.

"They're not that bad." Hiro offered. He was starting to get that edgy feeling, like when the Losers of Candy came around. Except they weren't here. And Vanellope's enemy was herself.

Vanellope looked to the ground, a sign she was starting to get uncomfortable.

"Y-y-yeah. Imagine that wedding day. 'I-I-I-I-I-I'. I-I'd never get to the "do"."

Hiro gave a half-hearted laugh and tried to add to her attempt to lighten the mood.

"Then I'd hug you until you could say 'do'."

Vanellope didn't really look any less uncomfortable, but she laughed. Hiro just watched as she finally, really pictured the situation and began to actually laugh, and harder. Eventually, she lost it and her grip.

"Woah— AHH!"

Hiro heard a crash and a yelp of one of the couples below them. He checked ducked down to see if everyone was all right, and ended up almost loosing his place from laughing too.

~o~o~o~o~

"Hiro, stop it." Vanellope said, with an annoyed edge to her tone.

Hiro was still dying of laughter.

"I-I can't! You fell into them while they were kissing so that you're on a branch above them and they are still holding hands, the other hands holding a branch. And all. I mean all of your feet were tangled like pretzels. It was priceless!"

Vanellope laughed before her hand shifted and she groaned, grabbing a make-up remover wipe.

"Stop. I don't have enough mascara to keep messing up."

Hiro rolled his eyes.

"Makeup. Boring, expensive, and useless."

Vanellope glared at him.

"You don't have to stay in here you know. You can go downstairs with everyone else."

"And sit there while they make-up for there, ahem, lost time? Nuh-uh." Hiro said, leaning back into Vanellope's bed.

He could see Vanellope's smirk from her mirror.

"Are you sure you just don't want to go downstairs because of Ralph."

Hiro huffed. That was ridiculous. Okay, so it wasn't. Ever since Hiro had seen Ralph for the first time (at the door the second time Hiro had come over), he'd been scared of him. Ralph was a big man, nine years older than him. He was a construction worker that could probably kill a small child with one hand (okay, morbid thought).

Vanellope took Hiro's silence as a yes and continued.

"He looks like a marsh monster, but he's really a big ol' teddy bear. Just get to know him."

Hiro wanted to tell her No. An astounding no, but Vanellope loved Ralph probably more than anyone else. He was, after all, her savior.

"I don't know, Nell." Was what Hiro said instead.

Vanellope gave another eye roll and walked over to Hiro.

"Where's the line?"

She usually asked the girls, but Vanellope didn't occasionally ask Hiro where the line was. Since Vanellope was uncomfortable staring right into the eyes of her own reflection, she looked a little downward, causing a line usually somewhere between her eyes and her cheek bones.

"Here." Hiro said, indicating to a line fairly close to his under eye-lid. He'd gotten used to the fact that it looked a little girly.

"Thanks," Vanellope said, and began to blend at the indicated surface, "I'm serious, though, Hiro. He's just like that because he grew up in the foster system. Who gets you is the luck of the draw, and, sometimes, they're not very nice."

Hiro nodded and thought to himself. Would he have ended up like that if Aunt Cass weren't around? Would Tadashi have done something if that were to happen? Would they have been separated. It lead to other questions, like did Vanellope have an actual sibling? Who were her parents?

"Hiro!" Vanellope snapped, "Did. I. Get. It?"

Hiro looked up and nodded before noticing a spot on Vanellope's face.

"Well, there right there," Hiro reached out to blend it, but Vanellope slapped his hand away.

"Geez!" Hiro said, "Sorry."

Vanellope didn't say anything at all.

 **Say Something**

Hiro did eventually meet with Ralph. And he was still afraid of him. It really didn't help any. But Vanellope had yet to meet with the friends Hiro hadn't actually seen in a very long time. It didn't take a whole lot of convincing to get Vanellope to go meet them, since they were older and could probably handle her differences a little more than those younger than them. She did get a little freaked out, though, when Hiro revealed to her last minute that this was a surprise and Honey Lemon, Fred, Gogo, and Wasabi had no idea they were coming.

"T-t-they'll th-th-think I'm a— "

Hiro pulled her into another hug before she yelled.

"S-S-STOP!"

Hiro let go, his eyes wide.

"Okay, okay."

Vanellope sank into her seat in the car.

"No more grabbing me, okay?" she said softly after a good while.

Hiro looked at Vanellope in concern.

"Are you okay? You've been acting really strangely, lately."

It had started with the initiation tree last month and she had gotten really squirrely since.

"I-I-I-I" Vanellope stomped her foot on the floor of the car and hit her head against the head rest, then closing her eyes and sliding into the fetal position.

Hiro sighed.

"Do you need me to turn around?"

Vanellope didn't even look at him. She just nodded and, when they arrived at her house, left without saying a word.

~o~o~o~o~

Vanellope was like that all week. She only ever talked to Hiro when it was absolutely necessary, and rarely ever let him help her with things. School had started back up, and it was up to the rest of the group to start a conversation, for Vanellope had gone almost mute. The scariest thing was that the Losers of Candy weren't visiting their table anymore or in the hallways. And Vanellope would be occasionally missing when it came to being in their group. Hiro was getting really worried.

It was making Tadashi a grumpy camper. Hiro would pace the room every night, keeping him up. Hiro had known it wouldn't be long before Tadashi demanded an explanation, and the events unfolded that night.

"What going on in that Big Brain of yours?" Tadashi asked, "Tell it to shut down because I need sleep."

Hiro stopped pacing and looked at Tadashi (who was beginning preparations to move out).

"It's Vanellope. I'm staring to think that she's trying to face the Losers of Candy alone," having read his log, Tadashi knew of whom Hiro was talking about, "She can't do that! Sure, she's smart, defiant, and sassy, but she gets all stutter-y when she's distressed. That's what I'm for."

Tadashi's eyebrows reached his hairline.

"Careful, Hiro. You're starting to sound crazy obsessive here. And if you're so worried, why don't you just talk to her?"

"She won't talk to me either!" Hiro complained, "Vanellope isn't that kind of person. I mean, yeah, there's the stutter, but I help her with that. I always help her. And now she's pushing me away."

Tadashi closed the book he was reading. He had a look on his face like he was up to something too and leaned forward from his pillows to rest his elbows on his knees.

"How about her other friends. Is she letting them help?"

Hiro shrugged. He hadn't really thought of that.

"Well, maybe. I never asked. But, still, even though that would make me feel a little better, I just..."

"Want to be the one to help her." Tadashi leaned back, "I don't know Hiro, you seem really obsessed with her. I think Baymax would say, diagnosis: you're in love."

Hiro turned beat red.

"What?! Tadashi! She's my friend— "

"That you constantly hang out with and obsess over."

"She's-she's," Hiro was lost and flustered.

"I'm 18." Was all he could say.

"And she's autistic. Life works in mysterious ways, little brother. Face it. You're whipped."

 **I'd Remind You**

Hiro wasn't really sure he wanted to approach her the next morning. But it was Saturday, both his and Vanellope's scheduled work time. Hiro begged and begged his brother to cover his shift.

"Fine. But I need to leave at 3, so you have to cover from there."

From then on, Hiro knew he was on bought time. He tried to tell himself it was fine. That he didn't have to talk to her, like what had happened all that week. But, whenever he thought about it, Hiro suddenly felt compelled to believe he just wanted to rant on and on to her.

3 o' clock final came around and Hiro entered from the back doors. Tadashi went off to the labs at SFIT and Hiro thought that everything went at a fairly smooth pace. He and Vanellope rarely needed to interact since it was slow business and there weren't too many products that needed to be restocked.

It was about 5 pm and Hiro really needed to pee, so he decided he would take a small break and use the rest room. After 4, there wasn't much business anyways.

When Hiro returned, he heard something very disturbing at the front. There was Taffyta and the other Losers of Candy, taunting Vanellope.

"Go on! Just say the words. Don't be a baby now, say something."

The entire time, Vanellope was stuttering on an 's'.

"S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S."

Every tremble in Vanellope's body caused by the tears she was trying caused a commotion of laughter from the group.

Hiro's fear was suddenly forgotten before he stormed out the front.

"Leave."

"Oh, hey, Hiro," Taffyta said, fluttering her eyelashes, "Want to join the fun?" Taffyta reached at his arm, causing a different pattern of continents to fight their way out from Vanellope's mouth.

Hiro stepped back and repeated.

"Leave." He pointed to a sign in the front, "We reserve the right to refuse service, therefore you no longer own the right to stay in this room. Get. Out."

"But we were just beg— "

"I don't care! Get the hell out! Now!"

The Losers of Candy took a step back. Taffyta, realizing she had pushed too far, looked at Vanellope.

"Til next time!"

They were out of the shop in moments, however, Vanellope continued to stutter her words.

"I-I-I-I-I..."

Hiro turned the 'open' sign to 'closed' and went back to get Vanellope, and pulled her into the storage room. Despite what she had insisted on the week before, Hiro held her against his chest and stroked her hair. It took her a lot longer than normal, and Vanellope still seemed unable to say anything else. He stroked her hair. At one point, her knees came out so that they were just sitting on the floor.

Vanellope whispered something understandable, but the content of it made Hiro refuse to let her go.

"T-T-They're r-right. I-I aaam a hopeless retard."

Hiro looked down.

"What are you talking about? You're a solid B+ student at least, could probably make a book out of the notes you write in class, and take AP math."

He felt her headshake.

"Y-y-yeah, b-but I still st-st-st-stutter. A-and I sometimes don't even remember whose order I took. I only take good notes because, if I forget that's it. And math is just a s-stupid little upside effect." Vanellope's voice was beginning to fade away due to the fact that Hiro was beginning to squeeze her tighter. "I'm a glitch. A real one. No way I put it is going to make it better I'm just useless reject. I— "

Hiro let her escape into the open air but didn't let go of her entirely, just enough so that he could look at her tear-streaked face.

"You're not a reject; Ralph's here, Jamie, Bolt, Penny, and Sherman are here. I'm here."

I'm here for as long as I can help it.

Vanellope started to cry again, this time silently and almost invisibly if Hiro hadn't been scrutinizing every detail of her face.

"Hey, don't cry again..."

Vanellope, unable to use her arms freely wiped the tears off on the shoulder of her hoodie.

"I'm not crying. Just sweating through my eyes," she said softly, looking at the floor.

After a few moments, Vanellope tried to excuse herself.

"I think I should go..."

Before she fully stood up, before Hiro had to let go, before Hiro could loose the courage, he grabbed her and kissed her. It was soft, and she kissed back. When they surfaced, Vanellope's eyes were wide.

"W-w-w-w— "

"I kissed you because you're amazing, even with you're stutter."

Vanellope looked at him for a minute and shook her head.

"I-I-I"

Hiro stroked her hair and waited for the words to come out.

"If I forget..." Vanellope finally said.

Hiro looked at her.

"What?"

"W-w-what i-if I forget right now? Or something else. I-I can't... I-It's not..."

Hiro looked at Vanellope, who was at a loss for words.

"It's not what?"

"...fair."

There was a deep pause as Hiro took in what she's just said. He looked back down.

"It would be fair. Because it would be worth it. It would be worth it to listen to you talk— and stutter— and watch you race and climb up trees and to kiss you. It would be worth it."

"But then what? What would you do if I forgot? If I told you okay and I forgot that this every happened?"

"Then I'd remind you."

 **A/N: Okay, I'm not believing this, but my word count says there are almost 9,000 words in this. Aadfdghbhsnfjdgm. 9,000! THIS IS A MONSTER! To put this in perspective, one of my Fanfiction has 10 chapters and 10,000 words. This is one chapter. One giant one-shot that's making my eyes blood-shot.**

 **LISTEN UP: THIS IS ALMOST 9,000 WORDS! IF YOU IGNORE IT, IT'S LIKE SAYING I JUST WASTED 9,000 LETTERS. Favorite, (don't follow, it's one shot), and REVIEW. Tell me how the feels went (keep in mind I'm 13 via 2 1/2 months ago), tell me if the summary could use some improvement, tell me if the little section titles were confusing, dumb, helpful, cute, WHATEVER. Please, please, please, please, please don't let me sit here thinking I just wasted 12 hours of my life.**

 **1) I wasn't being lazy and not looking up their names; I could name every Sugar Rush character and maybe even their recolors. I was just trying to go into Hiro's perspective**

 **2) Not exactly important, but Jamie and Jack are twins in this.**

 **comment) I feel ya, Nell...**

 **3) That number was random. As in if you wanted to annoy me and call the number, you would get one really angry person saying "wrong number"**

 **~ Sam**


End file.
